Walmart is increasing salaries and benefits, including offering company stock, as it aims to boost retention of store managers. Managers of its U.S. stores will be eligible for annual grants of up to $20,000 in company stock, and the stock will vest over a three-year period with a percentage vested each quarter.
The size of the grant will depend on the type of Walmart store, with Supercenter managers eligible for up to $20,000 a year and managers of the other two tiers eligible for annual grants of $10,000 or $15,000 in stock.
Walmart also said recently that it would increase the average salary for store managers from $117,000 to $128,000. In addition, bonuses for store managers will depend more heavily on store profitability and could reach up to twice a manager’s base salary.
Store turnover has been stable since 2022, and John Furner, chief executive of Walmart U.S., notes the company is “keeping store managers in their location a bit longer, and it’s good for an entire team to have a manager for a few years versus a year or something less than that.”